The Holdovers: Release date of Golden Globes 2024 winning film, iMDB reviews, cast and running time

Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa in The Holdovers PIC: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

A big winner at the recent Golden Globes, The Holdovers is one of the most talked about new cinematic releases of the new year - and now it is set to be launched in the UK.

An old school comedy/drama, The Holdovers introduces us to Barton Academy, a boarding school for children which has a batch of children are sadly left alone at Christmas time and are forced to spend it with their teacher who remain at the Academy to take care of them.

Heartwarming and highly rated, reviewers have been raving about the release. Here is everything you need to know about The Holdovers.

You can watch the trailer here.

Oscars 2024: Who is the favourite to win Best Actor?

What is The Holdovers about

The film is a comedy drama that introduces us to the character of Paul Hunham, a classics teacher at an Academy boarding school that remains on campus during the Christmas holiday in order to look after the small handfull of children that don't have homes and parents to go back to.

Hunham though is a rather bad-tempered and negative man who struggles to form bonds with most of the other teachers, let alone the pupils. However, when he is asked to look after an intelligent but troubled student alongside the school's head cook, an unlikely bond begins to form.

The Holdovers reviews - including iMDB

The film has already been handed a mightily impressive 8/10 by iMDB reviewers and has been cited as "the most perfect Giamatti-delivery vehicle we've gotten in a long time, one that understands that he's best when his talents for yelling are mixed with deep pathos" by GQ reviewer Esther Zuckerman.

One reviewer stated the "three leads are brilliant" with Da'Vine Joy Randolph called "amazing" for her part in the movie while Eddie Harrison of film-authority.com stated the film was "a beautiful, compassionate, funny film about how relationships can bring the best out of human beings at any time, not just Xmas".

The Holdovers cast

The cast of the film has already picked up a number of gongs with a number of the stars receiving critical acclaim for their roles. In no order, Paul Giamatti takes the lead role of teacher Paul Hunham with Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, the school's head cook and a bereaved mother.

Alongside side them is Dominic Sessa who is Angus Tully, a student left on campus during Christmas break and Brady Hepner who stars as Teddy Kountze and Angus's enemy and one of the five holdovers. The other holdovers are played by Ian Dolley as Alex Ollerman, Jim Kaplan as Ye-Joon Park and Michael Provost as Jason Smith.

There are also roles for Andrew Garman as Dr. Hardy Woodrip, the headmaster of Barton Academy, Naheem Garcia as Danny the school janitor, Stephen Thorne as Thomas Tully, Angus' institutionalized father and Miss Lydia Crane, a school staff member. Gillian Vigman and The OC hero Tate Donovan (or Jimmy Cooper to some of us!) are also credited with roles in the film.

What awards has The Holdovers won so far - including Golden Globes 2024 winners

Paul Giamatti took a huge award when he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy while Da'Vine Joy Randolph also took the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. The film was given a nomination at the awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy too.

It won three awards at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Young Actor/Actress alongside countless other awards across various different award ceremonies.

The Holdovers UK release date, run time and age rating

The film was given its world premiere at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023 and is now set to land in the UK with a release on Friday 19 January by Universal Pictures UK on January 19, 2024.

The Holdovers has a run time of two hours and 13 minutes and has been handed an age rating of 15 by the BBFC due to strong language, brief nudity.